League of Legends, developed by Riot Games is one of the most popular MOBAs in the world and the learning curve of all the champions, runes, masteries, and items is steep. Each Champion has a kit, which is an assortment of abilities that they can use in the game. There are 4 abilities that are unlocked and leveled as the character levels up in the game. Each champion has a role that they can play in the game and has a passive ability that has no need to be unlocked. The general objective of the game is to defeat the other team by meeting out map objectives and winning team fights. Maps often have teams composed of 5v5 but can also have custom games with as few as 1v1. Once a player learns at least the basics the game they may find it addictive and fun.
Many fans with their love of the game might spend time learning its lore. This love of the lore and game might inspire a player to create a champion they would love to play in game, and Riot Games has a section of their forums devoted to such concepts. Often Fans will post a champion concept with their kit, role, lore, name, and even concept art. Fans will post concepts in this forum in hopes that it might inspire Riot to create a champion similar to their concept. This hope isn’t in vain and may have stemmed from when Riot first started.
Originally Riot would allow players who referred a lot of users to the game to have a hand on designing a new champion. Once the game became popular enough Riot had to abandon this since it wasn’t feasible for a player to design a new champion in a 2 day visit. Most champions need 6 to 12 months to complete and a player might get upset with how their design got reinvented.
Riot adopted a new approach to listening to their fans ideas, being the aforementioned forum for champion concepts. If a player posts a champion concept that catches their interest they will incorporate what they like of the concept into a champion. Often times a number of concepts become skins for champions that are already released. Other times a single new champion could have overlapping similarities to a dozen different champion concepts. Often the creators of these champion concepts are excited to see a portion of their ideas incorporated into the game. However, there are instances where a player might become irate, seeking recognition for an idea even though Riot may or may not have used it as inspiration.
Recently there has been speculation on a new champion teaser being borrowed from a player concept that was posted only a few months ago. Riotpostedclarifying that the Champion that they will be releasing has been in development from the beginning of the year and that it was mere coincidence that a player happened to post a concept that overlapped their design. With the champion preview of Kindred, you can see that there is little overlap between the fan concept and what the developers actually created. Unfortunately with the amount of concepts and the way new champions are teased, speculation like this around new champions is common.
That particular controversy aside, League of Legends fans are really devoted to their game and the concepts that it inspires. There might always be an occasional issue with fans claiming their concepts were used or changed, but it is inevitable with a game that is constantly inventing new champions and has thousands of concepts posted by players. It is up to Riot to find a balance in this, which they seem to have done well so far with the implementation of the forum and how they have tended to handle player submissions. How do you feel about player submissions being incorporated in games? Let us know in the comments.
